When you meet your surgeon, you hope to feel comfortable with them. They’re going to carry out a highly complicated procedure, and one mistake could change your life forever. You want someone you trust.
With that in mind, you may be wondering if age tells you anything. Are you better off if your surgeon is younger or if he or she is older and more experienced?
Studies suggest that youth helps
For many people, the assumption is that older doctors and surgeons, because of their experience, will have more skill — and there are certainly plenty of doctors who do benefit from this experience. However, age and experience aren’t necessarily everything.
On the whole, though, studies have pointed toward younger doctors as those who make fewer mistakes. Their patients have lower mortality rates. It seems that youth is actually helpful, so don’t be concerned if your surgeon seems young.
One potential reason for this is that younger medical professionals may be more well-versed in new technology. If they graduated from medical school five years ago, and not 25 years ago, they learned things that weren’t even taught decades before and they’re more comfortable with the modern tech in use in every operating room these days. Will an older doctor err on the side of outdated tactics just because that’s what he or she was taught?
Mistakes happen at any age
One key thing to remember in all of this is that mistakes can happen at any age, with any surgeon. These mistakes can change your life forever. If you suffer some type of serious harm or if you lose a loved one, you need to know exactly what legal options you have at your disposal to recover fair compensation for your losses.